The Foreign Service Journal, April 2018

40 APRIL 2018 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL codes and locking her in the desig- nated room, I was standing by the service door that opens onto 21st Street as journalists were coming through a metal detector in the E Street entrance. Suddenly the ser- vice door burst open and in walked the vice president. I was the first per- son he saw, and he strode right up to me, shook my hand and said how pleased he was to meet me. I was speechless. A fewminutes later an officer of the writers group said some dignitary had failed to show, and so would I mind sitting next to Bush? There was an empty seat behind the head table, and my new friend George the vice president was wav- ing me over. The veep was being criticized at the time for not eating broccoli, so I had a chance for a scoop. Then the missing person sud- denly showed up, and I was spared the opportunity. Where We Stand But for the most part, we concentrated on publishing the best content we could, and we were rewarded for doing so. Membership increased by 60 percent, advertising revenue more than doubled, and the press picked up our articles on an almost monthly basis. It became routine for the national media to use our maga- zine to showcase issues of concern to the Foreign Service. When AFSA’s U.S. Information Agency contingent raised in our pages charges of political interference by agency management, it was network TV news. When a Journal poll conducted by Fran showed diplomats’ concern about terrorism, it was widely reported via broadcast and print outlets. An entire episode of William F. Buckley’s PBS series “Firing Line” was devoted to a column I wrote on professionalism in the ambassadorial corps and its discontents, “Galbraith & Guts” (April 1985 FSJ ). The Toon interview alone generated 200 clippings and several network TV reports, plus a star turn for the former ambassador on the “Today Show.” Our change in mission to be a higher-profile professional magazine was significant enough to be noted by the Federal Times , which said in a 1983 editorial that the Journal “frequently includes provocative, first-class essays—particu- larly since Stephen R. Dujack has been its editor.” Forgive me for tooting my own horn here, but we were clearly on the right track. This state of editorial success and impact proceeded for six mostly happy years. The interval was not without untoward incident or other bumps in the road that brevity com- mands I omit, but the Journal continued its steady progress as a needed beacon during a critical period for diplomacy and for diplomats personally and professionally, and was duly recog- nized time and again. During that period, the same faction had won the AFSA presidency and the key vice presidential posts on the Governing Board in each annual union election. I had served under a total of six presidents, but there was nonetheless constancy in board management. Then, in the summer of 1987, I came face to face with one of the challenges implicit in AFSA’s unique structure as a com- bined trade union and professional association run by a board of individuals elected every year. A new and different bunch was voted in. Shortly after the transition, I had a conversation with the new president, Perry Shankle. He queried me about the Edito- rial Board. “Do we get to replace them?” he asked. I explained that members were elected for fixed terms. He instead forced the Editorial Board to accept him as the liaison officer. M embership increased by 60 percent, advertising revenue more than doubled, and the press picked up our articles on an almost monthly basis. Amb. Malcolm Toon decried the “Mr. Klunks” among political appointee ambassadors in the April 1982 FSJ .